Wednesday, 21 February 2007

Smoulder

I was telling the hubby the other day how I liked the Chinese New Year of yesteryear, when the whole of Hong Kong would slow to a standstill. I kind of miss the rush of having to make sure I got all the food and gift packages ready before the festivities because all the shops and restaurants would be closed for a couple of days. And because I hate crowds, I loved that the normally busy areas of town were devoid of people and cars. Not any more. Lots of shops and restaurants are opened so fewer people are staying at home. I miss the cold too! I used to look forward to dressing the kids up in the silk padded jackets that my mil had made. This year, people were walking around wearing T-shirts in the hottest CNY on record. In fact, it was really too hot to wear Smoulder, but of course, I wore it anyway. ;-)

Here it is, making it's way around the streets of HK. That's H peeking from behind me. H is a pig, and if he's anything to go by, I'll say that pigs are gentle and generous to a fault, very easy going, dreamy, and optimistic folk.

The elbows are a bit saggy with wear for three days straight.

Pattern: Smoulder from Rowan 31

Yarns: Rowan Cotton Glace and Cotton 4-ply in stated colors as the pattern, except for Blood Orange, for which I substituted Rowan Nice in the same shade. (The Nice yarn is terribly splitty, and the knitting slowed down a lot when I knit that color to make sure I caught the nearly thirty strands in each stitch.)

A couple of the big color bands from the sleeves were deleted to suit my short arms, and the fronts/back were knit as one piece. I'm sooo glad I did that because I had over 250 ends to weave in as it was, and if everything was knit separately, there would've been about three times the number of ends!

The different yarns had different spins, and it was noticeable when two extreme opposite leaning bands of color were close to one another, such as the bright light red (Cotton Glace in Poppy) near the bottom of the picture, which leaned right, and the darker red (Nice in Blood Orange) above it which leaned to the left. The buttonhole and button bands are self-faced, so it's a bulky four layers of fabric when the cardi was buttoned up. All minor things to consider in the big picture, because I'm quite happy with the whole thing.

Smoulder was started (and nearly done except for weaving in the ends, sleeve seams, and neckband) almost a year ago, and I must have gained weight since then because the fit is a bit on the snug side, which was aggravated by all the holiday feasting. ;-)

Here's some lai see (lucky money) for you! A happy and healthy Year of the Pig to everyone! (BTW, this last picture best represents Smoulder's colors.)

your smoulder doesn't even look handknitted, but machine knitted. you did a great job on it! if i ever knit anything like that, i will learn my lessons from you and knit the fronts and back together to eliminate some of the ends to weave in.
i have a bit of that rowan nice in stash. you're right about the splitting, but it sure is pretty ... with such a nice sheen.

What a bright beautiful cardigan....I absolutely cannot imagine weaving all those ends (it would have prohibited me from ever starting the sweater), but I'm certainly glad you had the sticktoitivness (isn't that a word?)to do it - a gorgeous sweater!

Smoulder is perfect for CNY! It has tailored finishing, the self facing button bands look real neat. Thanks for sharing these details which are not obvious from the magazine photo.
Happy Year of the Pig to you & your family!

Smoulder looks absolutely wonderful! I love the color combination. I always have so much trouble knitting in even gauge with Cotton Glace but your knitting is beautiful. Everything is so even and neat! Great job!